Last summer, Jane Sanders launched The Sanders Institute, a Progressive think tank backed by star power and big money. It’s goal: “revitalize democracy.” The initiative represented the second stage in what was originally envisioned by Jane and her husband, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as a three-pronged progressive political machine.

Sen. Sanders announced this vision shortly after bowing out of the last presidential race, in a July 2016 interview with USA Today. He explained that the first organization, Our Revolution, would train, support and recruit candidates, while the Sanders Institute would spread awareness of the country’s “enormous crises.” Sanders also imagined a third organization, described broadly as a political ad agency, that has not materialized.

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Less attention has been paid to The Sanders Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit without disclosure requirements whose mission must be chiefly non-partisan. A VTDigger analysis of organization’s maiden year found little original work from the think tank, which took in nearly a half-million dollars in contributions and grants last year.

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Jane Sanders wears many hats at the institute: founder, fellow, fundraiser and a non-voting member of the board of directors. The institute is being run by her son, David Driscoll, a political neophyte who previously worked at Burton Snowboards. His estimated salary for the job is $100,000.

The Sanders family has faced charges of nepotism in the past, including when Jane Sanders, as president of the now-defunct Burlington College, brokered a favorable partnership with a woodworking program run by her daughter, Carina Driscoll. Carina was also a paid campaign staffer for her stepfather in his 2000 and 2004 House campaigns. In January, Our Revolution endorsed her unsuccessful bid to be Burlington mayor, and sent out a national fundraising email on her behalf.